Sunday, February 21, 2010

I have come across a new scientist article where two scientists did a couple of experiments trying to replicate Benjamin Libet's free will experiment where he concluded that unconscious neural processes determine our actions before we are ever aware of making a decision. His experiment is however called into question by Jeff Miller and Judy Trevena of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. They used scalp electrodes, but instead of letting their volunteers decide when to move, Miller and Trevena asked them to wait for an audio tone before deciding whether to tap a key. If Libet's interpretation were correct, Miller reasoned, the readiness potential should be greater after the tone when a person chose to tap the key.

While there was an readiness potential before volunteers made their decision to move, the signal was the same whether or not they elected to tap. Miller concludes that the readiness potential may merely be a sign that the brain is paying attention and does not indicate that a decision has been made.

Miller and Trevena also failed to find evidence of subconscious decision-making in a second experiment. This time they asked volunteers to press a key after the tone, but to decide on the spot whether to use their left or right hand. As movement in the right limbs is related to the brain signals in the left hemisphere and vice versa, they reasoned that if an unconscious process is driving this decision, where it occurs in the brain should depend on which hand is chosen. But they found no such correlation.

Saturday, February 20, 2010

I have recently read a post by parapsychologist Dean Radin where he says that the evidence for quantum coherence in living systems at room temperature. He says this recently because another experiment has been done that shows quantum coherence continues even at room temperature so their is some form of quantum entanglement in living systems. This conflicts with long held dogma that it simply is not possible to have quantum effects in living systems. This new experiment is published in the science journal called nature. Rather or not this is the mechanism for psi is an open question.

Monday, February 8, 2010

A great new book is now out it is now a New York best seller discussing nine lines of evidence that support the reality that near death experiences are indeed linked to an afterlife. Dr. Jeffery Long i commend you on your bravery on challenging naturalism with evidence that shows that naturalism is probably false.

Listen to the skeptiko interview where Dr. Jeffery Long discusses the evidence for near death experiences.

Also i like to discuss too i recent video i listened too a closer to truth video where Robert Lawrence Kuhn interview scientist Robert Parker. Robert says a number of things that i like to discuss here.

He mentions first, " People want to believe and it's easy to fool them"

This is a good statement but one where i would say Robert is using an argument such as for example well kids want to believe santa claus really exists but of course he doesn't. The problem is this argument sounds very good at first but once you dissect it you find that it's very weak in nature. The reason why people believe in an afterlife it's not because simply they want it too be so. Of course, i can't say that for everyone but at least some people hold to the view that an afterlife is probably true based on their research and assessment of the evidence.

Next he says, "They get debunked over and over again the same claims"

Just because they get debunked doesn't mean the debunker himself is making an fair assessment of what is really going on. Yes sometimes the debunker does but other times not.

He says, "There's are a hint of an afterlife", you are not going to be reunited with your loved ones".

This is where Robert should first do some research into psychical research and parapsychology on this own then come back and see if his view changes any.

"Nothing is ever verifiable"

WRONG, do some research into psychical research and you will soon find out their is a ton of verifiable information.

"It's manipulation"

True that religions have manipulated people to follow a certain set of rules, every religion has a different set of rules. This of course, makes it seem obvious that any afterlife view is sure manipulation.